10' x 14'2" Sino Savonnerie Rug | Black Field, Ivory Aubusson Border | Brand New Wool Pile

This is a formal French Savonnerie composition woven by hand in China, a hand-knotted Oriental rug that borrows its drawing from 18th century Paris rather than from a tribal or village tradition. The field is a deep, even black, and the whole surface is built around one enormous crowned medallion that fills more than half the length of the rug. At 10' x 14'2" it is a true room-size piece, well suited to a large living room, a formal dining table with chairs pulled out, or a great room where a single unbroken design can carry the floor. The pile is 3/8" wool on a cotton foundation, clipped low enough that the fine scrollwork reads cleanly from standing height, and the rug is brand new and never used. Every rug we ship carries a certificate of authenticity confirming it is genuinely hand-knotted.

Design and Motifs

The center holds a small ivory and sage rosette ringed by 4 large shell palmettes, each opening like a scallop against the black ground and separated by 4 baton-shaped bars. Around that core runs a continuous garland of small roses and buds, then a second ring of curling acanthus leaves that widen at the corners into big fan-shaped shells. The medallion is enclosed by a cusped cartouche outline in camel and rose, with a crested finial at the top and bottom of the field. Each of the 4 field corners carries a full flower spray, roses, buds and leafy stems, growing out of a panel of fine diagonal lattice hatching, which is the classic Savonnerie device for filling space without crowding it. The border is unusual and worth looking at closely: an ivory ground carrying a sawtooth triangle band, feathered leaf tips, and a circular rosette cartouche set into each corner square, framed inside and out by thin black and camel guard lines.

Black, Ivory and the Soft Palette in Between

The black field is the reason this design works. It is a dense, matte black with no blue cast, and it pushes every pale element forward so the medallion appears to float. Against it the weaver placed a full range of muted tones: ivory and cream in the shells and lattice, warm camel and biscuit in the scroll bars and outlines, soft sage and olive green in the leaves and the corner rosettes, and salmon to dusty rose pink in the flower garlands, with a few deeper burgundy strokes marking the shadows of the acanthus. Nothing is bright, which is the point; the whole palette sits in the antique-washed range that decorators reach for when a room already has strong wood tones or dark upholstery. The ivory border is noticeably lighter than the field interior, giving the rug a clear frame, and the black outer guard stripe holds it all together at the edge. In a room with warm floors, as shown in the photographs, the rose and sage notes come alive.

Woven in China in the Savonnerie Tradition

Sino rugs of this type are hand-knotted in Chinese workshops that specialize in European court designs, chiefly Savonnerie and Aubusson, and the best of them are extremely disciplined weaving. A curved-line French medallion leaves no room for improvisation: every scroll has to close, every shell has to mirror its opposite across the axis, and the sawtooth border has to stay in step all the way around a 14 foot length. This one holds its drawing, and the low 3/8" clip is a deliberate choice that keeps the fine outlines from blurring. The wool is firm and springy with a quiet sheen, and the back shows tight, regular knotting with a flat woven selvage, as the ruler photograph makes clear. If you are shopping 10x14 area rugs and want a formal, decorative floor without buying an antique, this is a strong, unused example of the type.